Well, friends… …it’s hard to believe that two more years have passed. Florida’s manatees have spent two more winters snuggled up in the warm water plumes of nuclear power plants. California’s male sea otters have wasted two more breeding seasons trying to copulate with anything that moves. Rogue packs of killer whales have brought everything in the North Pacific two years closer to extinction. And what do we have to show for it? Two more years’ worth of clutter on our computer monitors and our mantelpieces. Two more years’ worth of thoughtful gifts from your neighbours’ trip to Cabo and your mum’s troubling addiction to eBay. Two more years for the charming objets d’art that you bought in Greensboro to begin to seem, well, not so much fun and charming, as sad, really, and two years older. Sound familiar? Do you have the very pieces of cetacean clutter described? Looking for a sucker to foist them upon and run? Search no further, and allow us to introduce: Third International Marine Mammal Extravaganza: The Orderly Garage (sale) Opportunity (TIMME: TO GO) http://www.marinemammalogy.org/conference2005/GarageSale.htm to be held at the 16th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals this December. Bring your marine mammal merchandise to our table at the conference. And, of course, when you drop off your blue whale lava lamp, who could blame you if something else catches your eye? Get in touch with your inner bower bird, and snatch up a tropical delphinid snowglobe with which to decorate your desk. Come find the very holiday gifts you are praying to eschew and give them to other, less suspecting and more vulnerable “friends” and colleagues. Volker Deecke Marine Mammal Research Unit, UBC Ari Shapiro, WHOI, Rob Williams, SMRU, University of St. Andrews P.S.: After all, we didn't go into marine mammal science for the money or the glory. Clearly, it’s for the accessories ============================================================== Volker Deecke, Ph.D. Marine Mammal Research Unit Cetacean Research Lab University of BC Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre AERL Bldg., 2202 Main Mall P.O. Box 3232 Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4 Vancouver, BC V6B 3X8 Canada Canada Phone: +1.604.822.9150 +1.604.659.3429/3430 Fax: +1.604.822.8180 +1.604.659.3599 WWW: http://www.marinemammal.org/MMRU ==============================================================